Congratulations to the Sabers varsity men's basketball team as they finished a respectable 3rd in the 2017 AISA basketball championship tournament held in the Sabers gym, February 3-4, 2017. After comfortably winning both pool games on Friday, the Sabers were outmatched by the YIS Dragons in the semifinals. The loss put the Sabers into the 3rd-4th place consolation game where they pulled away late to beat the KIS Phoenix for the second time in 2 days. Though not perfect, it was a satisfying end to the tournament for the SOIS cagers who played above their height all season long.

The tournament saw the end of the fine careers of 5 Sabers seniors: Aki Shigeyama, Leo Roberts, Taizo Heimer, Leslie Tokai, and Akira Morioka. Shigeyama and Roberts were named to the all-tournament squad. Shigeyama and Heimer led the Sabers in scoring during the tournament.

Coach Heimer and Coach Routh led the team. Cocona Kaji, Kirara Okazaki, and Airi Nishimura were managers.The tournament program, game scores, final standings, and promo videos can be found on the tournament webpage (link below).

SOIS hosts high school boys and girls basketball teams from Sasebo, Iwakuni, and Tokyo for friendly games January 20-21, 2017, in the Sabers gym. Come cheer on the Sabers boys and girls teams as they play the American School in Japan Mustangs, the MC Perry High School Samurai, and the EJ King High School Cobras. The action begins at 13:00 on Friday. Check out the game schedule here. Go Sabers!

On January 13, 2017, the SOIS Sabers boys and girls JV basketball teams traveled to Yokohama for the annual WJAA JV basketball tournament co-hosted by Yokohama International School and St. Maur International School. The Sabers girls team placed 5th out of 6 teams, and the boys team placed second. The girls team faced stiff competition from experienced teams but bounced back for a convincing win in the 5th-6th place game. The boys won their round-robin games by an average margin of over 30 points, but ran out of steam in the championship game on Saturday, the team's third of the day. ​Congratulations, Sabers JV teams, on a fine season. Thank you, Coach Sagara, Coach Hirai, Coach Mitsuhashi, Coach Routh, and Coach Heimer.